This invention relates generally to single closure control television receiver systems in institutional environments and particularly to a single closure control television receiver system for use in a healthcare environment.
Television receivers that are used in hospitals, nursing homes or similar healthcare institutional settings, often incorporate a pendant mechanism that houses a pillow speaker, a volume control and a single switch closure control for activating and deactivating the television receiver and cycling through all of the television channels stored in the television receiver""s viewable or allowed channel memory. There is usually a finite number of xe2x80x9cpositionsxe2x80x9d made available, with certain positions being used for television programs and others being dedicated to music or to informational or instructional programs, at the discretion of the institution. It will be appreciated that these television receivers are, for the most part, designed for the normal consumer market and are adapted to meet the special needs of the institutional market. The cyclical nature of the control system and the single switch closure preferred for use in the institutional market necessitates a television receiver design in which the power ON/OFF event position is situated below the lowest channel number position (and above the highest channel number position) in the channel number list. Therefore the television receiver must be tuned to display the lowest numbered channel in the channel list whenever the receiver is activated or turned ON. In certain situations, however, the institutional operator requires that the television receiver display a channel other than the lowest numbered channel in the channel list when the television receiver is activated or turned ON. In this situation, the prior art television receiver systems prevent the television receiver from displaying any channel numbers that are below the ON channel position, with the result that many channel number positions may not be accessible.
A principal object of the invention is to provide an improved television receiver having a single switch closure control system.
Another object of the invention is to provide a more flexible institutional television receiver system.
A further object of the invention is to provide an institutional television receiver system having a single switch closure control system that permits unrestricted positioning of the ON channel position.